In Red and Yellow
by Booksareawesome29
Summary: My name is Beatrice Prior and I am Divergent. I choose Amity to stay alive. They call me Bea now. I thought I was safe here. I thought they would never find me. I thought I would live a happy life free of war and danger but I was wrong.


Disclaimer: Veronica Roth owns Divergent. I only own my plot and my characters. All the stuff in italics was taken directly from Divergent. I do not own it.

_I wake to sweaty palms and a pang of guilt in my chest. I am lying in the chair in the mirrored room. When I tilt my head back, I see Tori behind me. She pinches her lips together and removes electrodes from our heads. I wait for her to say something about the test—that it's over, or that I did well, although how could I do poorly on test like this? —But she says nothing, just pulls the wires from my forehead. I sit forward and wipe my palms off on my slacks. I had to have done something wrong, even if it only happened in my mind. Is that strange look on Tori's face because she doesn't know how to tell me what a terrible person I am? I wish she would just come out with it. "That," she says, "was perplexing. Excuse me, I'll be right back." Perplexing? I bring my knees to my chest and bury my face in them. I wish I felt like crying, because the tears might bring me a sense of release, but I don't. How can you fail a test you aren't allowed to prepare for? As the moments pass, I get more nervous. I have to wipe off my hands every few seconds as the sweat collects—or maybe I just do it because it helps me feel calmer. What if they tell me that I'm not cut out for any faction? I would have to live on the streets, with the faction less. I can't do that. To live faction less is not just to live in poverty and discomfort; it is to live divorced from society, separated from the most important thing in life: community. My mother told me once that we can't survive alone, but even if we could, we wouldn't want to. Without a faction, we have no purpose and no reason to live. I shake my head. I can't think like this. I have to stay calm. Finally the door opens, and Tori walks back in. I grip the arms of the chair. "Sorry to worry you," Tori says. She stands by my feet with her hands in her pockets. She looks tense and pale. "Beatrice, your results were inconclusive," she says. "Typically, each stage of the simulation eliminates one or more of the factions, but in your case, only two have been ruled out." I stare at her. "Two?" I ask. My throat is so tight it's hard to talk. "If you had shown an automatic distaste for the knife and selected the cheese, the simulation would have led you to a different scenario that confirmed your aptitude for Amity. That didn't happen, which is why Amity is out." Tori scratch the back of her neck. "Normally, the simulation progresses in a linear fashion, isolating one faction by ruling out the rest. The choice s you made didn't even allow Candor, the next possibility, to be ruled out, so I had to alter the simulation to put you on the bus. And there your insistence upon dishonesty ruled out Candor." She half smiles. "Don't worry about that. Only the Candor tell the truth in that one." One of the knots in my chest loosens. Maybe I'm not an awful person. "I suppose that's not entirely true. People who tell the truth are the Candor…and the Abnegation," she says. "Which gives us a problem." My mouth falls open. "On the one hand, you threw yourself on the dog rather than let it attack the little girl, which is an Abnegation-oriented response…but on the other, when the man told you that the truth would save him, you still refused to tell it. Not an Abnegation-oriented response." She sighs. "Not running from the dog suggests Dauntless, but so does taking the knife, which you didn't do." She clears her throat and continues. "Your intelligent response to the dog indicates strong alignment with the Erudite. I have no idea what to make of your indecision in stage one, but—" "Wait," I interrupt her. "So you have no idea what my aptitude is?" "Yes and no. My conclusion," she explains, "is that you display equal aptitude for Abnegation, Dauntless, and Erudite. People who get this kind of result are…" She looks over her shoulder like she expects someone to appear behind her. "…Are called …Divergent." She says the last word so quietly that I almost don't hear it, and her tense, worried look ret urns. She walks around the side of the chair and leans in close to me. "Beatrice," s he says, "under no circumstances should you share that information with anyone. This is very important." "We aren't supposed to share our results." I nod. "I know that." "No. Kneels next to the chair now and places her arms on the armrest. Our faces are inches apart. "This is different. I don't mean you shouldn't share them now; I mean you should never share them with anyone, ever, no matter what happens. Divergence is extremely dangerous. You understand?" I don't understand—how could inconclusive test results be dangerous? —But I still nod. I don't want to share my test results with anyone anyway. "Okay." I peel my hands from the arms of the chair and stand. I feel unsteady. "I suggest," Tori, says, "that you go home. You have a lot of thinking to do, and waiting with the others may not benefit you." "I have to tell my brother where I'm going." "I'll let him know." I touch my forehead and stare at the floor as I walk out of the room. I can't bear to look her in the eye. I can't bear to think about the Choosing Ceremony tomorrow. It's my choice now, no matter what the test says._ Tori grabs my arm "It's your choice, but Divergent people are hunted and killed in Erudite, Dauntless and Candor. You should choose something else. But it's still entirely up to you,"

I leave the room totally confused and start walking home. It's up to me. I have to decide. I don't want to die so Candor, Dauntless and Erudite are out of the question. That leaves Abnegation and Amity. Since Abnegation was one of my test results so it seem to obvious choice, but I don't know. I don't think that I can be stifled by the strict rules and routines of Abnegation anymore. I also don't want to leave my parents and my brother behind.

When I get home I go up to my room and stay there until it is time for dinner. My parents tell us we don't have to help tonight because we have to get a good night's sleep for tomorrow. We don't talk, aside from to give thanks before our mean. You can feel the tension hanging in the air. Caleb, in true Abnegation fashion, stays to help our parents clean up, even though they told him not to. He fits into Abnegation so clearly; he spends his life helping people. I envy how easy his choice will be tomorrow.

The next morning I wake up early. I am tired and even though I slept a full night, I feel unrested. We take to bus to the building where the choosing ceremony will be held. Together we climb the stairs, selflessly letting others use the elevator. I take my seat next to my brother and wait to hear my name called. The choosing ceremony is a blur and all I hear is my racing heart until Marcus call "Caleb Prior," Caleb steps up to the bowls with a look of determination on his face and takes the knife firmly in his hand. He makes a small cut in his palm and lets his blood drip over the bowl or water, Erudite. I am shocked. This is the last thing I expected him to choose. I barely have time to process what is happening before Marcus calls "Beatrice Prior," I stand up. My knees feel weak and I can feel the eyes of everyone in my family on me, watching. I take the knife and almost drop it, surprised by its weight. I have no idea what to do and I am standing in front of everyone. It seems like minutes have gone by before I lift the knife and cut my palm. I bring it towards the bowls, looking at all of them in turn. I know that I must decide quickly or I will lose my nerve. I sprinkle by blood over the soil, Amity.

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